Reclaiming the Horns
by LeelooDallasMultipass
Summary: Hellboy learns about his mother and father per the comic books . Things are not quite what they seem as Hellboy discovers that 'demon' is a relative term. It's rated M for later chapters and foul language throughout.
1. The Child has Grown

Disclaimer: Hellboy and his associated characters and stories do not belong to me, but to Mike Mignola and Dark House Comics

This is my first attempt at a story guys, so please be patient with me!!

**Prologue**

Abe Sapien has always been an avid reader, not to mention an extremely fast one. To date he's read almost everything in the scope of the world's folklore knowledge and library base; of course, there is always the occasional bit of local curiosity that Abe finds anew and begins to read, but it would be much faster to name the things Abe hasn't read than to name those he has.

However, there is one text of a particularly significant and ancient nature that he will soon stumble upon that will be the most important book he will ever translate and commit to memory: The diary of Catherine Tanner-Trimaine, Hellboy's human mother.

**Chapter 1**

The members of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense are all aware of Hellboy's path of arrival into this world. Professor Broom witnessed him pass through the portal created by the Nazis Occultists in 1944.

Later, after his adopted father's death, Hellboy would learn that there was a bit more to his tale. An old priest informed him that his birth mother, Catherine Tanner-Trimaine, was a witch and on her deathbed she was claimed as a bride by a powerful demon by the name of Prince of Sheol.

The confusing bit is that this love pact between demon and witch occurred 300 years before Hellboy crossed over into this world. The only explanation Hellboy ever got for how that was possible was that his spirit was waiting to be born at the right time, which would not come until the night that Professor Broom witnessed the portal open on December 23, 1944. Confusing or not, this new revelation about his origins just put more fuel on the fire that Hellboy would have to try even harder not to let someone use him to begin the new apocalypse.

Unfortunately for Hellboy, these worries ran through his head pretty regularly and they were really starting to piss him off.

"Maybe I'm more human now that I have a real reason to kick my dead-beat demon of a dad's ass? What do you think kitties?" During his more private moments, Hellboy was not one to pass up a chance to brainstorm with his cats.

"MEOWWW!" The all black cat that was one of Hellboy's favorites seemed to respond.

"My old man's a dick, huh baby?!" Hellboy said as he picked up the black cat and snuggled it next to his large angular jaw speaking in the most cute and cuddly voice possible. He couldn't help feeling sorry for his mother. What must it be like to be called a witch? Would the woman of his dreams be called a witch too for loving him, a half-demon, even after all he'd done for this rock of a planet? Hellboy had to push those thoughts from his mind as the double-bolted security door to his room swung open. It was Manning. His balding head, deep-set ogling eyes, and black fed suit made him seem a little bit like a reanimated corpse in the dimly lit entrance-way of Hellboy's bedroom.

"Alright, some locals in northern Scotland ran into some possessed librarian or something and we have to go check it out. It looks like a two hour job, plus plane ride, all-in-all I hope to have your ass back in this bunker before nightfall to prevent any more chances of screwing around. That clear?" The level of nonchalance and lack of a 'how are you' from Manning's mouth partly explained Hellboy's response while still holding on to his all-black feline companion.

"He's an asshole too baby?" Hellboy said sweetly into his cat's ear, but not quite loud enough for Manning to hear.

"Did you say something?" Manning never understood Hellboy's feline fetish. He just wanted to have Hellboy's entire room steam-cleaned, the cats shaven, and Hellboy taken to get a full manicure and plastic surgery work-up. Everything would be so much neater that way. But, deep down inside, even Manning had to admit that he had a sort of perturbed affection for Big Red and his testosterone fueled lifestyle.

"Give me ten minutes and I'll be ready." Manning remained standing in Hellboy's room and looked like he intended to watch him get ready or make sure he wasn't going to sneak out of a magical trapdoor during the duration.

"Do you mind if I get some privacy? I mean I know you like to watch, but COME on." Hellboy was just poking fun at him now, still Manning had no sense of minding his own beeswax. After an eye-roll and shoulder shrug, Manning left the room and partially closed Hellboy's steel door.

"Well, kitties, Manning's organized, I'll give him that, but Christ he is always in my freaking bubble." Hellboy said as he sauntered into his bathroom. He took off the pair of specially designed boxer-briefs he was wearing (complete with tail-hole and size XXXXXL). He mused over shaving down his rapidly growing horn stumps, stretched, scratched his ass, and hopped into a lukewarm shower. Hellboy knew he must seem more touchy than usual, but he also thought that everyone should cut him a little bit of a break. He just found out his birth story, his adopted father's death was barely a year behind him, and Liz who he once had a crush on was now dating his best friend, Abe. Granted, he was a happy to see Liz and Abe so happy together and he really did have only friendly feelings for Liz, but, all of this served to remind Hellboy of just how lonely he felt.

**Chapter 2**

After throwing on his signature skin-tight leather slacks, tight white muscle shirt, leather duster, weapons holsters, feeding the cats, and nodding to Clay who was in his usual post outside of his bedroom, Hellboy met the rest of the crew in subbasement fifteen's second de-briefing room. Through years of practicing and training, Hellboy knew this would be where this case's debriefing would be held. This room was used specifically for low-threat level, and basically boring as fuck case preparations.

"So we get in, figure out what the deal is with this person and why she's freaking out the locals, assess a diplomatic solution, and leave?" Hellboy at least hoped that John Myers was asking a rhetorical question so the team could finally get this case over with.

"Yes, that is the standard operating procedure for this type of situation. It appears that the apparition, or ghost, is not actually hurting or threatening anyone but keeps repeating that she has some sort of book reservation that needs to go to its proper owner." Manning said as he glanced half-heartedly at the case file that was clipped to his neon green clipboard.

"Well, it at least sounds interesting, if a bit on the typical side." Abe mentioned as he nodded his head to Liz who was sitting very close to him. Hellboy noticed how bright her face looked when he came in. She smelled a bit different than normal too, almost like she was in love? Hellboy smiled sadly to himself. He had never really had deep love for someone. He had puppy love for Liz for a while, sure, and the love of a son to a father, as well as the love of a best friend with Abe, but a true connection still eluded him.

"I still don't understand why we need a full team if this is just a standard type of case?" He liked the guy, but Myers could really be thick-skulled sometimes.

Manning smiled before he responded. "Well, we want to be sure that if things go awry we have the team necessary to handle it."

Hellboy could feel Liz nudge him under the table as Abe slide a folded piece of paper to him. He made out that half the scrawled writing was Abe's and the other half was Liz's. From reading what the note said, it was clear that Abe had read Hellboy's thoughts for a moment:

_Myers isn't dense red, he's just brown-nosing. _That first sentence in the note was clearly written by Liz. The second and last sentence read: _I happen to think that Myers has a bit of a crush on Manning._ Hellboy grimaced at that. He supported each person finding his or her own form of love, but yuck. Myers? And Manning? Hellboy's reaction must have been more noticeable than he thought because Liz seemed like she was trying desperately to stop herself from having a seizure as she held in her laughter at Hellboy's grimaced reaction.

"Is there a problem back there? Are we clear on the mission?" Manning raised an eyebrow as he gazed towards them.

"Crystal clear, Man, crystal." Hellboy gave a snide thumb's up, which Manning and Myers interpreted as sincerity.

"Well, since you're so excited, Off to the Hangar!" Well, at least they are both as dense as lead. Maybe Myers and Manning are a perfect couple but definitely not the best looking Hellboy mused.

**Chapter 3**

She must complete her task or master and mistress would be very upset. She loved her mistress and master equally and hated not to do them honor by doing exactly what they asked; she must find the child, but how could she when she was bound to the old ruins? Further, she had no way of knowing exactly what he looked like. It had been over sixty years since the gate had opened. Would he look very much like his father?

The old librarian haunted the ruins day and night for years and still no one came. Finally a few children would venture to the ruins and play games late at night, though none like the destined child she sought. They even took to taunting her one year. Why did master and mistress care so much for this plane? Even she, just a bookkeeper of a great civilization long since dead and forgotten under the sea, could not understand the ways of this world anymore. She remembered only fragments of her only life. Her mistress had been re-incarnated many times, waiting until she was finally strong enough to reach her long lost love who had been furtively banished back to the other plane of existence from whence he came. Now at least they were both together there for eternity. Now, the faithful servant of the woman now known as Catherine Tanner-Trimaine, although the librarian knew her thousands of years ago during her first life-cycle on this planet, will let the child know that he is not alone and that all hope for who he is is not lost.


	2. See No Evil

Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Private jet or no, Hellboy still couldn't stand flying. It wasn't that he was afraid of heights or some freak accident, he just hated being cramped up in such a small space with so much compressed air. It always reminded him of what it must feel like for a zoo animal in an artificial environment, except without all the leering children. Having Manning along for the ride never made it any easier.

Liz and Abe were visibly nuzzling one another a row over from him as they shared a small laptop screen and watched a movie. Hellboy couldn't quite make out what it was, not that it would reveal any quality of Liz's or Abe's present state of mind. The film was just playing for posterity's sake as they spent more time paying attention to each other.

The lovebirds were still in that PDA stage. It was nice for his friends to be so happy but it was nauseating at the same time. Maybe it was because he still had some residual feelings for Liz or maybe he was just feeling the pang of being alone, but it still make him sick to his stomach. Gazing over to Myers and Manning who seemed just as actively interested in one another, though in an intellectual way, was just as nauseating. The combination of the two blossoming couples just made Hellboy feel the sensation of stale air even more intensely.

"I'm gonna head down to the cargo hold and make sure we don't need to pick up any supplies before we start this job." Hellboy knew that they didn't need any more supplies and, frankly, so did everyone else in the cabin, but he needed an excuse to get out of his chair. Other than a hurried 'shoo' of the hand from Manning who was too occupied with Myers, Hellboy got no reaction.

The BPRD tried their best to modify an airplane row to accomdate Hellboy's size, but it just ended up feeling like a botched handicapped row of seats in an ancient movie theater. The original seat was far too small and in an attempt to grant more space, they just removed any sign of arm or back support, complete with broken springs in the musty mastress. One stuck Hellboy at a particularly odd angle in the upper thigh as he vacated his seat.

"I know we aren't at the top of the man's list for funding, but you'd think they could afford to spend a cinch bit more on their freaking equipment." Hellboy muttered under his breath.

He cast a side-long glance out one of the portico windows as he made his way to the door at the back of the cabin that lead to the belly of the plane. It seemed that they were still over the Atlantic Ocean, but they should be getting close to the English equivalent of BPRD soon. Like the Bureau back in the states, the British version, the Ministry of Unexplanable and Mysterious Phenonmenon or MUMP, had its own small airport and compound. It was somewhere on the outskirts of London, with an office outside of Glasgow, Scotland. Hellboy couldn't help but think of his birth and what he had learned about his mother as he thought of seeing Glasgow and Scotland again. It wasn't so far in the past that he ventured back to Bromwich Church to learn more about how he crossed the plane into this world. He couldn't exactly say he was happy to be back. Much of the beauty of the Scottish countryside was tainted for Hellboy because of this self-knowledge that he so didn't need to know.

He reached the door at the back of the cabin and swung open its small pressure lock with all the force of his left hand.

"Fuck, I so don't need to be reminded of my personal BS right now. This just cannot get any better." Hellboy said as he took the small ladder steps 3 at a time into the cargo hold, not because he set out to, but because his enormous boots and feet were too large for the tiny little steps. They groaned slightly under his weight.

"At least it's darker and cooler down here." Hellboy never thought it made any sense that a cargo hold would be more comfortable for him than the cabin where all the other people sit. Maybe those years of having to ride as though he were part of the cargo sunk in or maybe he just didn't want the company.

Either way, the solitude was comforting, at least for the moment. He leaned up against one of the larger trunks in the last row of neatly and securely packed cargo and snuck a Cigar from his inner coat pocket.

"When we land, I am so drinking a glass of nice expensive Scotch."

**Chapter 5**

Although it may have seemed otherwise to Hellboy, Liz and Abe were not completely oblivious to his recent rise in moodiness or him vacating his seat. Abe's ability to mind read also meant an added level of communication with Liz.

After Hellboy muttered and got up from his seat, Liz craned her neck around her row of seats to watch him gaze out the window and then disappear into the back of the airplane. Abe spoke to her inside her mind.

"_What do you think is eating him, Liz?" _

"_I'm guessing it must have something to do with us returning to Scotland. I can't believe that it didn't occur to Manning that maybe Red should sit this one out. I mean he just hasn't seemed right since he got back from his trip to Bromwich Church." _Liz still cared very deeply for Hellboy and Abe couldn't expect any less concern from her.

"_Maybe I should go down there and talk to him?"_

_"No, Abe, you know what happened the last time you did that. I think he needs to be alone for now. He'll come talk to us when he's ready to vent."_

_"I suppose you're right. I've never been good at these sorts of things. Still I do have to agree with you. It does seem odd that Manning didn't consider the repercussions a trip to Scotland would have on Red. Maybe this case is more than it seems." _

"_You know, you're right, I've got to see what's really going on." _Signing out of their mental conversation, Liz stood up and walked toward the front of the cabin as Myers looked like he was going to suck every word Manning spoke right out of his mouth.

"Sorry to interrupt, but Manning, do you mind if I look at that case file, I mean none of us ever really got a good look at it during the debriefing." Liz had already started to rummage around the box of files Manning had toted with him. Although it seemed like she was asking for Manning's permission, she was just attempting politeness and was really telling him what she was already doing.

"HEY! Don't go needling through my files! Those are all alphabetized, collated and color-coded!! Stop that right now missy!" Manning was like the world's worst substitute teacher at moment's like this. He was condescending, rude, and worst of all, he didn't always realize that he was dealing with other living, breathing, adults that could think for themselves.

"O Gimme a break Manning! With all your BS about proper procedure, you most of all should know that each one of us has a legal right to examine each case file before we commence operations. You've just gotten so used to jerking us around since the Professor passed that you forgot that we have been taking you at your word on some of this stuff."

"Wow, sir, uh I think she definitely got you there." Myers said with a giddy smile.

"O shutup, Myers." Maybe some of Hellboy's moodiness had infected Manning too.

Liz had just thumbed to the section of the box that should have all the active cases, because Manning had color-coded all of those in red. The file on the case they were about to begin was sticking up slightly. Just as Liz reached for it, Manning snatched it out of your hands. Liz threw him a fiery glare.

"Miz Sherman, before I let you see this, I need you to use some discretion."

"What why? Who are we hiding this from, I thought this was just a run-of-the-mill case." Abe had appeared next to Liz with a very quizzical look on his face.

"Yes, Manning, discretion with whom or what?" Abe said as he crossed his arms.

"Alright, you all have to promise not to tell Hellboy about the details of this case."

Liz snatched the file folder out of Manning's hand and opened it. She let out a slight gasp.

"You mean you want us to lie to him about this?" Liz passed the folder to Abe.

"You want us to lie t because this case involves Bromwich Church and because the book reservation the ghost has is for Hellboy from his dead mother." Abe had, perhaps the most consistently calm voice on the team, but even he sounded distraught when he said that.

"That's insane! When we get to that church and he recognizes what's going on, it might send him right over the edge! I won't do that to him!" Liz looked like she would shove Manning out of the plane if she could.

"Well, that's essentially the idea." Manning said with his face in the shadows.

"We want to get a reaction from him, so I finally have the evidence to push him off of this team once and for all."


	3. Destiny?

Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, Hellboy or his palls, those belong to Darkhorse Comics, and Mike Mignola.

So sorry for the long wait guys! I hate to keep you hanging like that. I just started my Graduate Classes; it's summertime, I know, I'm a dork. So I've been super busy! Thanks for the nice comments so far. By the way, in one of the previous chapters, I used the term "PDA" to describe Abe and Liz's relationship, I meant public display of affection.  Enjoy!

**Chapter 6**

"Manning, I have never really trusted you, but I never thought you would go this far. At least now no one can give me any reason why I can't burn you alive!"

"Uhh, Liz, I think you may want to reconsider." Myers now stood in their very tense conversational circle.

Just as Liz was about to crumple both Myers and Manning up into piles of ash and flush them out of the plane's toilet, thus jettisoning them from the plane, she felt Abe tug on the edge of her shirt. Abe began a hurried mental conversation with his girlfriend.

"_I think there may be more to this than meets the eye. Myers wants to talk to us without Manning around. He says that he doesn't want any harm to come to Hellboy either."_

_"All I can say is this had better be one amazing explanation." _Without much of a chance for privacy anywhere on the small plane, Liz knew they only had a few options to separate themselves from Manning. Since going into the plane's cargo hold, where Hellboy was currently taking up residence, was obviously not an option, she figured there were only a few other choices.

"_Okay, Abe, tell Manning something along the lines of getting me to calm down about this by talking to me privately."_

"_Already thought of that, my dear. Don't worry, problem- solving might not be my forte, but I certainly know how to use the right language to manipulate someone as dimwitted as Manning._

"Director Manning, perhaps this conversation would go better if you removed yourself and allowed Mr. Myers and me a chance to convince Liz without you here vexing her? Hearing it from the lips of someone she trusts might be a better choice for all of us and for your safety. I'd rather not see this plane turn into a fireball."

"Goddamnit! It's about time someone saw the infinite wisdom in my idea. Thank you, Abe. I knew that even with your weird skin and—err—eating habits that that logic of yours would count for something." Happy to be away from an angry Liz, Manning strutted off into the pilot's cabin and shut the door.

"Alright, spill it!" In as hushed a voice as she could muster considering the rage now bellowing inside of her, Liz turned to look at Myers.

"Okay, guys, I know how terrible this must seem. But, I've been doing some poking around about Hellboy's mother and it looks like she wasn't really as crazy or as into the black arts as everyone thinks she is." With that, Myers took what looked like his own personal leather-bound field journal out of his deep-coat pocket, thumbed to a page, and removed an extremely worn-looking piece of parchment. He handed it to Abe and waited with baited breath for Abe to read aloud.

"It says something along the lines of: 'Have faith my love, our time will come. With this new incarnation of your spirit, we can finally be together again. My promise still stands. My love is infinite and I will wait for eternity to see you again.' The rest of it is ripped and I cannot make anything else out. But it does appear to be written in the same language as the parchment naming Hellboy's right hand the hand of the apocalypse." Abe handed the parchment to Liz for her to gaze over.

"So what, you mean this is some sort of ancient love letter to Hellboy's mother? What exactly does that prove. Not to mention where did you find it?" Liz crossed her arms. Admittedly, much of her anger had been squelched by this revelation, but she was still impatient for Myers to reveal his entire hand.

"Well, I know you guys have noticed that I've been brown-nosing to Manning a lot lately. Don't be disappointed, but I don't want to get in his pants." With that, Myers suppressed a smile.

"Wow, Myers, you are more one-dimensional than I thought." Liz was smirking now.

"Uhh, thanks, I think. Well, to get on with it, with all the brown-nosing I've been doing, Manning has allowed to me to see much of his precious case files, including the phone numbers to the complainants, or really children, that brought this case to our attention in the first place. So, I took the liberty of calling and meeting with some of these kids on a hunch that this was a much more complicated case than met the eye. Apparently, Manning didn't even bother to interview them really or ask if they had found anything unusual at the haunting sight. It turns out that the kids weren't really being bothered by the librarian-like apparition until they found and removed this piece of parchment from some sort of funerary cask found at the ruins. Then the librarian was full-on annoyed and scared them off the property. So, that's how I ended up with the parchment. And, that's how I deduced that if the librarian was connected to Hellboy's mother and the removal of this parchment essentially summoned her, then the parchment must be connected somehow." Myers looked downright pleased with himself.

"Well, I suppose that sounds like fairly reasonable logic to me. Please, continue." Abe eyed Liz to see if she had taken in the argument. She seemed just as intrigued as he was.

"Okay, well, I did some research on Hellboy's mother—err—Mrs. Trimaine. In the accounts of her two human children, that we acquired through Hellboy's trip to Bromwich Church, they mention that around the time the 'demon' summoned her to bear his son, she started to act like a different person, which is something they attributed to her being involved with the dark arts. They essentially thought she was possessed, which is situation of two souls in one body that is commonly confused with—"

"That of a stronger spirit from a past life coming to the surface, or a reincarnation." Liz interrupted Myers. Now this was starting to make some sense.

"Exactly. So, with this new information about Trimaine being a reincarnation of a woman who made an eternal love-pact, it's easy to see how her human children misconstrued that as a possession.

"So, then I went to our mythological library to do some reading. Now, Hellboy's demon father, the Prince of Sheol, was known to live in the earthly plane thousands of years before Catherine Tanner-Trimaine was born. He had fallen deeply in love with a human woman and that woman with him. Things were going good until the locals that lived in the human town decided their love was an abomination and put her to death and banished him back to his realm, never to see each other again. But, before he left he sacrificed the most sacred part of his power as a demon, his horns and his crown of fire, which is what allowed him to cross over into this world, to save her soul and allow her to come back to him sometime in the future. Thus, she was reborn over and over again until the time was ripe and the Prince of Sheol was strong enough to bring her over to the other plane to live with him for eternity. So far, Hellboy's father doesn't seem like such a bad guy. He never tried to get revenge on those that wronged him.

"But, the plot thickens. Our religious concept of what a demon is oversimplifies who they are, which partly explains Hellboy's awesome and loyal personality. Before Christianity, Demon's were merely the guardians of the afterlife. When the creator made the world he created so much good that he had to create a dark force to keep balance. Unfortunately, this dark force, known as the Odru Jahad, grew too powerful. But the creator knew he could not destroy it, or balance would be disrupted. Instead he used his right hand to seal the dragon away forever.

"The creator then made the demon race to guard this fortress and keep the dragon from escaping, bestowing part of himself and his image to them. As such, the most worthy among the demons would be blessed to bear the right hand of this creator, the right hand used to seal the Odru Jahad. It was the highest honor to have this hand. But, a demon could only be born with it via a balanced form of true love, which means sacrificing yourself for someone else."

"Which is exactly what Hellboy's father did for his mother." Liz nodded as she spoke.

"Exactly, that is the highest form of love and more important still that it was between the creator's two favorite children, man and his demons. The love pact between Hellboy's mother and father was one of those situations. That hand, is the same hand that Hellboy possesses. So, what Rasputin saw as merely an opportunity to open the gate and set the dragon free, is much more complex. Hellboy is not the bringer of the apocalypse he is the protector and the gate-keeper."

"What the shit am I now? That sounds like a real mind-fuck to me." Hellboy had shown up in the back of the cockpit as Myers had finished explaining. His eyes glowed amber and he had a smirk on his face as he leaned against the portal into the passenger seating area where Myers, Liz, and Abe were no standing. Liz thought he looked more handsome than she had ever seen him. Abe read this thought and smiled. He wasn't concerned, even he had to admit that Hellboy seemed to glow just then.

"Ah, good, the monkey is back. Myers, Abe, is everything settled?" Manning had also appeared from his sojourn into the pilot's cabin.

"O, year Manning, everything is just peachy." Hellboy was staring at Abe, willing him to mentally explain what had just transpired.

"_Red, I promise I will explain, but there is something you should probably see first. Wait until Manning is out of the way." _

_"Okay, Blue, sure. But, could you at least tell me why everyone is staring at me like I'm the freaking golden-boy or something?"_


End file.
